Bret Hart
Bret Sergeant Hart (July 2, 1957), better known by the ring name Bret "The Hitman" Hart, is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, retired amateur wrestler, writer and actor. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling background, wrestling at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College. A major international draw within professional wrestling, he has been credited with changing the perception of mainstream North-American professional wrestling in the early 1990s by bringing technical in-ring performance to the fore. Hart is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time; Sky Sports noted that his legacy is that of "one of, if not the greatest, to have ever graced the squared circle". Hart joined his father Stu Hart's promotion Stampede Wrestling in 1976, and made his in-ring debut in 1978. He gained championship success throughout the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), where he helmed The Hart Foundation faction. He left for World Championship Wrestling following the controversial "Montreal Screwjob" in November 1997, where he remained until October 2000. Having been inactive from in-ring competition since January 2000, owing to a December 1999 concussion, he officially retired in October 2000, shortly after his departure from the company. He returned to sporadic in-ring competition from 2010–2011 with WWE, where he won his final championship, headlined the 2010 SummerSlam event, and served as the general manager of Raw. Throughout his career, Hart headlined WrestleManias IX, X, and XII, and participated in the main event of the 1997 and 1999 editions of WCW Starrcade – as a special enforcer in the former. Hart has held championships in five decades from the 1970s to the 2010s, with a total of 32 held throughout his career, and 17 held between the WWF/WWE and WCW. He is a seven-time world champion, having held the WWF World Heavyweight Championship five times and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice. He spent more time as WWF World Heavyweight Champion than any other wrestler during the 1990s, with a total of 654 days as champion, and was the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion born outside the United States. He is also a five-time WCW/WWE United States Champion, a two-time WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, and a three time world tag team champion (two-time WWF Tag Team Champion and one-time WCW World Tag Team Champion), thus making him the second WWF Triple Crown Champion and fifth (with Goldberg) WCW Triple Crown Champion, and the first man to win both the WWF and WCW Triple Crown Championships. Hart is also the 1994 Royal Rumble match winner (with Lex Luger), and the only two-time King of the Ring, winning the 1991 tournament and the first King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1993. Stone Cold Steve Austin, with whom Hart headlined multiple pay-per-view events as part of an acclaimed rivalry from 1996 to 1997, inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 and 2019. Outside of wrestling Hart has appeared in numerous films and television shows such as The Simpsons as well as featuring in several documentaries, both about himself specifically and others about the wrestling industry in general. Hart also helped found and lend his name to the major junior ice hockey the Calgary Hitmen and has written two biographies as well has having a weekly column for the Calgary Sun for over a decade. Category:Canadian-American wrestlers Category:Male professional wrestlers Category:Superstar Category:WCW Superstar Category:Hall Of Famer Category:1957